THE YOUNG AND THE RIGHTLESS ?
THE PROTECTION OF YOUTH RIGHTS IN EUROPE 12 Chronological age refers to the age of a person in terms of years since he/she was born. It is the absolute age of the person and does not depend on any other factors except the date of birth. 13 Aapola, 2002, p. 296. Sinikka Aapola refers to Peter Laslett, who identified five dimensions of age: chronological, biological, social, personal and subjective. See Ibid., p. 297. 14 See Center for Gender Sanity, 2010. 15 Clark-Kazak, 2009, pp. 1309 f.
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16 p. 305.
Aapola, 2002,
17 p. 1310.
Clark-Kazak, 2009,
18 p. 297.
Aapola, 2002,
2 — WHOSE RIGHTS ?
YOUTH A LEGAL CATEGORY WITHOUT DEFINITION 2.1 — The Meaning of Youth/Young Persons : Chonological vs. Social Age While most people will agree that youth is the phase of transition from childhood to adulthood, the concrete meaning of this is very controversial. This can be explained at least partly by the fact that all human beings develop at different speeds and thus reach full maturity at different ages. Yet, when it comes to laws, there is a need for concrete definitions in order to be able to fulfil the basic requirements of legality and efficiency. Thus legal categories are created and usually defined according to the chronological age of the individuals.12 Yet, “[t] he chronological definition of age is not as selfevident as it seems – there are multiple other dimensions of age”.13 Especially the concept of social age is helpful for a better understanding of the differences between children and young persons. The aim is not to show that youth can not or should not be defined in terms of chronological age, but rather to offer new perspectives on the question what ages should count as 'young'. The basic idea of social age stems from the difference between biological facts and social construction. Thereby chronological age is supposed to relate to the biological development of a person, ignoring the social roles attributed to age. This distinction can be compared to the difference between 'sex' and 'gender'. While sex refers to the biological attribute of being male, female or neither/ both, gender refers to the socially constructed roles attributed to the sexes and the relationships between them.14 This difference has been recognised in many spheres and thus influenced the way in which policies referring
to them are drafted. With respect to age, this difference between the chronological and social age has not yet been widely recognised. This is rather surprising, as the age at which certain biological and psychological processes occur varies widely and it would seem that chronological age seems somewhat arbitrary. It appears that, when talking about age, most people rather refer to an idea of social age, which reflects the social constructions surrounding chronological age.15 Social age can be said to refer to “[...] life-phases of an individual and to the social position of an individual or a group within the society, and it includes even social roles connected with age”.16 An example would be the attendance of primary or secondary schools. When talking with pupils, many people make a difference whether they still attend primary or already secondary schools. This is usually directly linked to chronological age. But biologically speaking, a girl in the last year of primary school might easily be more developed (both physically and mentally) than a boy in the first year of secondary school, to give just one example. Thus, what people seem to be referring to is the social construction of age. Thereby chronological age is linked to the development of the child, which is a social construct that only partly reflects the biological 'facts' it is based upon. Thereby, chronological age is used as “[...] a proxy for biological development in the absence of individual biological assessments”.17 Hence, even chronological and biological definitions of age occur in a certain social context and are not really strict. It can thus be argued that these chronological definitions of age are also social constructs.18 What is problematic is that these definitions, since they occur at a specific moment, usually reflect the social understandings of this precise moment. When they are then used as legal definitions, they
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